Consumer behavior during economy downturns

As economic cycle changes from boom to recession, its really interesting to watch how the consumer behavior also makes a major shift. During any bear market trend prevailing in the economy, the three most common approaches consumers use are cutting expenditure, saving and adopting ”smart” buying strategies. Various studies have been conducted by renowned agencies across the globe to understand the consumer psyche. Recently I  came across  a survey conducted by Starcom Media Vest group which pointed to the fact that consumers at the bottom of the  spending pyramid in India were relatively more insulted from the slowdown than the more affluent families. It appeared that Indians were found to be more optimistic in their spending pattern. The study highlighted that almost 40% of the Indians said they would not compromise on snacks and would still buy them at regular prices. When it came to studying the internet trends, some very interesting usage trend came into light. As compared to the internet usage trends before and after slow down, it was seen that 29% began spending more time online than before the slowdown, 27% conducted more price comparison online, 23% spent more time on the social and business networking websites, while 18% did more blogging. Thus it can be inferred that though economy has taken a downturn, the consumer behavior trends towards the bottom of the pyramid has not been grossly affected. In the difficult times, internet as a medium  has  been able to witness greener pastures thus establishing the fact that this medium is paving way to becoming the mainstay medium in the days to come.